458
T h e
K i n o ' s
B u s i n e s s
October 1930
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The Bible and the University By M ilo F. J amison / 'J^o'\//v4/v'Q-'<■/CÍ| l ( Los Angeles, Calif.)
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HAT is this book called the Bible all about ? I’ve heard many refer to it, but I have never had a copy to examine.” So spoke a girl student in one of the classes at the University of California at Los Angeles to one of the members of the Bible Club last year. And
and abroad. Both the mission field and the ministry are suf fering from lack of attention to this tremendous problem. ■" That there are many difficulties in the way of ade quately reaching our university young people goes almost without saying. However, difficulties have not daunted the Church in the past and should not now. It is possible to win and hold college young people for Christ. This fact has been demonstrated. The present need is to arouse enough interest in the university situation to make it pos sible to carry on an adequate student work which will stem the tide of modernistic indifference which is sweep ing our educational institutions. Student work is mis sionary work, yet it cannot be classed with ordinary home and foreign missionary enterprises which ultimately be
this is not an isolated example. Scores of students in our universities and colleges have absolutely no understanding concerning either the message or the purpose of the Bible except the little bit of misinformation which they have gleaned from newspapers or popular magazines. That the trend of the majority of the universities and colleges of America is away from faith in Jesus Christ is a self-evident fact. Almost every one of the older uni
versities of America was founded by the evangelical church upon a Christian basis, yet today an in stitution of higher learning to which the sons and daughters of Christian parents can be sent without having their faith at tacked in classroom and on cam pus is a rare find. Materialistic philosophy, evolutionary science, pantheistic literature, behavioris tic psychology and pagan moral ity all combine to tear down be lief in the Christ of the Bible, and thus rob our youth of the Chris tian idealism upon which this great nation was founded. With strange nearsightedness the Church has spent millions of
come self-supporting through the development of their own constit uency. In the university and col lege there is no permanent con stituency, and no financial back ing or support can be expected from the constantly changing stream o f students. Consequently any work which is done among this group must be practically supported from the outside. Un til the Church of Christ makes this support available and pro vides enough funds to carry on an adequate work at our univer sity centers, and until such time as there may be properly trained leaders raised up to hold forth the truth of God in the midst of the
Only One Anchor Holds B y W . M. C zamanske
When life moves o ’er an even keel, Without the semblance of a billow, Men rest on their philosophy As if it were a downy pillow. But when their ship is tossed about, j And all the sea in fury rages, No promise soothes, no anchor holds But one that grips the Rock of Ages. —Sunday School Times.
dollars for equipment and personnel to give Christian edu cation to children up through the high school years, and then has sent their youths to universities or colleges where they were pitted against the keenest intellects and the most disturbing moral influences without the guiding hand of competent Christian leadership. It is almost folly to expect that young people in the immaturity and unstability of the college age can survive the forces of materialistic agnosticism which pervade our university centers in every section of the country. A survey of the existing situations in our university centers reveals the startling fact that practically no evan gelical Bible-centered work is being attempted or even purposed. The meager amount of religious activity parad ing under the name of Christianity in most of our univer sity centers is proof that the evangelical forces of the Church have practically surrendered this important field o f higher education to those who are sympathetic with the prevailing religious cynicism of the day. This question is one which should vitally concern every Christian in our land. Over a million young people enrolled in our colleges and universities last year. The majority of them will graduate with no training in the Bible and with a biased opinion of the Church. Some solution must be found for this situation if there is to be maintained a well-educated, yet really spiritual leadership for the Church in this land
critical atmosphere of a university field, we cannot expect to make much impression upon our young people. Again the plea should be made: “ O Church of Christ, awake.” A C oncrete D emonstration The University o f California at ,Los Angeles was re cently transferred bodily from its old campus to a beau tiful new 320-acre site in Westwood Hills, a suburb of Los Angeles. During the past three years the State of California has spent almost eight million dollars in erect ing a new University on this beautiful site. The past year, the first on the new campus, more than fifty-five hundred students were enrolled. The next semester promises a much larger enrollment. With the moving of the University to its new location there was a natural re-alignment of students, the fo rma - tion of a new background which will ultimately give rise to new traditions, and in reality a complete and radical change o f student mind and attitude. This unusual condi tion provided a remarkable opportunity for the insertion of a Bible-centered program of Christian education into the thought-life of this great University. Starting with a nucleus of between twenty-five and thirty students which had been formed on the old campus, a new student organ- *Executive Director, University Bible Clubs, Inc., Los Angeles, Calif.
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